stay with me, please
by The Original Horcrux
Summary: The beeps on the machine are becoming less frequent. Your throat constricts because you now know that he's going to die. Nobody can sense death coming better than the person that's dying. - /Barty has always cared, he just has a different way of showing it


stay with me, please

_Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep._

The machine's constant rhythm makes your eyes heavy and your hand slack in his. You shake yourself awake and look down at his sleeping form. He looks so small and frail in the large bed that he hasn't moved from in weeks. You stroke the back of his hand with your thumb and hope that he will open his eyes just one more time so that you can see him again; the Doctors in the muggle hospital have told you to prepare for the worst.

You feel hot tears well in your eyes as you remember why Regulus is in here in the first place, and you clench your nails into your palms to stop yourself from crying out in anguish, because it's all your fault.

You were the one that convinced him to join the death eaters. You were the one that convinced the Dark Lord that Regulus was the perfect person to accompany you on the mission that he had assigned to you and Crabbe. He knew that Crabbe wasn't the brightest crayon in the box and had tried to send Malfoy, whom you hated and then you went and convinced him oh so perfectly to let Regulus, your best friend and lover, come with you.

"Please live," you whisper, wrinkling your nose at how wrong the words sound coming out of your mouth. You have trained yourself to be void of emotion, but Regulus cripples that training, whether he has his lips pressed to yours and your hand around his waist or if he's lying in a hospital bed, fighting for his life.

His eyelids flutter and open. You feel your heart leap and a sense of relief wash over you.

"Reg," you say hoarsely, pulling his hand to your mouth and kissing it.

"Barty?" he questions, squinting up at you, "Where am I?"

"You got hurt, Reg," you tell him gently, "you got hurt pretty bad. I had to bring you to a muggle hospital."

Tears well in Regulus's eyes as you tell him this, "You really do care," he croaks, "I thought it was beyond you."

"I've always cared, Reg," you say, hoping that if he survives this he won't remember this little display of your feelings, "I always will."

You bend down and press your lips to his, he responds but he's so exhausted that you pull away. His eyes are shut and his breathing is shallow.

"Barty, promise me that you'll tell Sirius that I'm sorry for taking mother and father's attention," he says, his voice fading fast. The beeps on the machine are becoming less frequent. Your throat constricts because you now know that he's going to die. Nobody can sense death coming than the person that is dying.

"Of course," you say, hoping that your voice doesn't sound any different to normal. Regulus' mouth twitches upwards just as the sparse beeps stop, only to be replaced by a single continuous beep, the red line that had previously been jumping up and down lying flat on the bottom of the screen.

You slip your hand out of his very gently and he doesn't stir. You walk quietly out of the room and along the corridor towards the guest bathrooms, hoping that you don't get caught by any of the doctors, who had to escort you out six hours earlier only for you to sneak back in with the use of polyjuice potion, something that you'd always had a sort of affinity for when you were back in Hogwarts.

You reach the bathrooms and lock yourself inside a stall and casting a quick silencing charm around you just in time. You let out a loud scream, a wail of anguish, because you know that Regulus won't make it. You didn't need the healers to tell you that, you'd seen what the curse had done to him. You'd been hard pressed to get him here alive. You'd been so scared as you apparated a few miles and stopped to check that his heart was still beating before apparating again. You hadn't known what to do, you couldn't take him back to the Dark Lord, who would punish both of you for your failure on the mission, and you couldn't take him to St Mungo's to heal, they would see the Dark Mark on your forearms and have the Ministry there within a minute. So you had to bring him here, to the muggle world, making up some cock and bull story about how you found him on the side of the road in this condition.

They had told you that you couldn't see him after he came out of surgery, but you had burst through the doors anyway, storming angrily down the rows of beds in Intensive Care until you reached him. You remember feeling your heart break as you saw him lying in the bed, facing the wall, not stirring at all aside from the rise and fall of his chest. You had bitten your lip hard to stop yourself from crying. You are Barty Crouch, and you don't cry when you're out in public.

You remember the Doctor telling you that he might not make it. You remember her telling you that you should let him pass away in peace. This had only angered you more, you weren't going to let Regulus go. He was your north, your south, your east and your west. He was the one who kept you from falling off into the abyss of insanity. You needed him, and he, the youngest child in the Black family, with all of the pressure put on him to be perfect, needed you.

You pound your fists against the wall, tears streaming down your face and your knuckles bloodying as you scream to nobody. You scream because it's your fault. You scream because you can never, ever go back to the Dark Lord now that you've shown that you care. But most of all, you scream because he's gone, and he's taken most of you with him.

* * *

**AN: This is my first shot at bartyreg so I'm sorry if it was a little off. I intend on working with these two to make future oneshots better, but yeah, here it is!**

**This is for the**

_**House Cup Competition: Hufflepuff: 3**__**rd**__** Year – Prompts: BartyReg, heartbeat, relieved**_

_**ASAWAU Competition: Prompts – Shock, Regret**_

_**Paring Diversity Bootcamp Challenge – Prompt: if you be the one to cut me, I will bleed forever**_

_**100 different Pairings Competition – Prompt: blame**_

**I'd love it if you could leave what you thought in the box below!**

**DFTBA,  
Best Wishes**

**Nayla xx**


End file.
